Tariffs And Trade

ARTICLES ABOUT TARIFFS AND TRADE BY DATE - PAGE 3

For the Group of Seven summit, now in ritual assemblage in Tokyo, the question is what makes this year different from any other year. The temptation is to point to new names in the cast of characters -- Bill Clinton and Canada's Kim Campbell especially -- and the odd circumstance that the Japanese hosts are virtually nTC without a government. But what really is changed is the world economic situation.For the first time, there is a perceived danger that the multilateral trading system that has been the engine of world economic growth for the past 40 years is breaking down.

U.S. backs China as traderThe United States expressed support yesterday for admitting China to the world trading system and resumed talks on the matter that were suspended when Beijing crushed the democracy movement in 1989.Admission of China to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which regulates much of the world's trade, would boost Beijing's campaign to increase its role and acceptance in the international community. It already ranks as the 11th largest trading nation.

PARIS -- The French prime minister rejected a farm trad agreement yesterday, calling the accord struck by the European Community and the United States "unacceptable" and warning that it posed a "grave threat" to French farmers.But France also left the door open to compromise on the accord, which was concluded on Friday. In a statement, Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy pointedly did not threaten to veto the agreement when it is debated by EC members, and he noted that "difficult negotiations" lay ahead.

In his first days as president-elect, Gov. Bill Clinton has been witness to the first shots in a menacing trade war between the United States and the European Community, Serbia's defiance of a United Nations ban on flights over Bosnian territory and Iraq's Saddam Hussein firing his pistol in the air to celebrate George Bush's defeat.He also has seen the recall of the U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso because it has aided Liberian rebels who killed five American nuns, Jordanian King Hussein's announcement that he has cancer, Japan's decision to steal a march on the U.S. by expanding economic ties with Vietnam and efforts by Salvadoran militarists to stall a purge of hard-liners while Washington is distracted.

By Robert Benjamin and Robert Benjamin,Beijing Bureau | October 7, 1992

BEIJING -- Sino-American goodwill flowed like the Chinese wine at a formal dinner last night opening the Ford Motor Co.'s first office here, an office that will lead a major thrust into China by the U.S. carmaker.But behind the good spirits and heady expectations of profits there was a dark specter: the possibility of a nasty, mutually unprofitable trade war between the U.S. and China.The trade war could begin as early as this weekend with the formal end of a yearlong U.S. trade investigation into Chinese market-access barriers -- raising disputes yet to be resolved by long-running trade talks.

When President Bush goes to Houston for the Republican National Convention next month, he hopes to have in hand a new North American Free Trade Agreement embracing the 370 million people of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Trade ministers for the three nations are expected to reach the handshake stage tomorrow. Initialing at the presidential level could come soon thereafter.This would be a major foreign policy achievement for Mr. Bush, who along with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has made formation of the world's largest regional trading bloc a top priority.

Hopes that the Americans and Europeans would resolve their dispute over farm trade policies and produce a new worldwide system to promote international commerce have been thwarted once again. Yesterday's fruitless meeting between President Bush and Jacques Delors, president of the European Community, condemns this key initiative to more months of inconclusive talk-talk.There is still a chance -- indeed a mandate -- for an agreement before presidential authority to present a package not subject to congressional amendment expires in June 1993.

Maryland officials, who have sought business with Kuwait, Japan, Eastern Europe and Canada, now are turning their attention south of the border. In his next trade mission, Gov. William Donald Schaefer plans to go to Mexico in the fall."

PRESIDENT BUSH has admitted ruefully that he's not very good when it comes to "this vision thing." Yet his success in convincing Congress to give him "fast track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements with Mexico and other nations indicates quite the opposite.President Bush backed his vision of North America forming the biggest consumer market in the world with 360 million people and an annual production of more than $6 trillion, with hard work to convince Congress that the free trade benefits will outweigh the disadvantages.

Six of the eight Marylanders in the House of Representatives are expected to vote this morning to give President Bush the authority he needs to negotiate trade agreements with Mexico and other countries that cannot be picked apart through subsequent congressional action. This is a pretty good ratio considering the power of organized labor, now the most protectionist force in America.Only Republican Helen Delich Bentley, xenophobic as always on trade, and Democrat Kweisi Mfume seem determined to oppose the president.